Texas Rangers Blog

This day in Rangers history (April 16): Yo, Adrian

A few morsels from the Rangers’ sometimes shady, sometimes sensational and always interesting past. Here are some ghosts of April 16s past:

April 16, 1972: A day after losing their first-ever game 1-0 on a walk-off wild pitch, the Rangers strike back with three first-inning runs and go on to beat those hated California Angels 5-1. Pete Broberg pitched eight innings and then Horacio Pina got the final two outs for the first save in Rangers history. A crowd of 6,556 was on hand. Seriously.

April 16, 1985: The Rangers end a five-game season-opening losing streak by scoring five runs in the final three innings to beat Toronto 9-4 in frigid Toronto. Every Ranger starter drove in exactly one run. Every Ranger starter by No. 9 hitter Curtis Wilkerson scored at least once (with speedy deceptively quick Don Slaught scoring twice). It doesn’t sound like it was a terribly interesting game.

April 16, 2000: In a span of five pitches, John Wetteland allows homers to Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome as Cleveland walks off with a 2-1 win. Also notable: Cleveland’s Chuck Finley, who was already the only pitcher to strike out four batters in one inning twice, does it for the third time. He strikes out Tom Evans, Royce Clayton, Chad Curtis (who takes first on a passed ball) and Rafael Palmeiro in the third inning.

April 16, 2004: Adrian Gonzalez is called up to the majors for the first time. He replaces Mark Teixeira (strained oblique) on the roster. But he never replaces Teixeira in the Rangers’ plans.

DID YOU KNOW: Marc Sagmoen hit .140 in 21 career games with the Rangers, but is also the last Ranger to actively wear No. 42, which was permanently retired by MLB to honor Jackie Robinson only days after Sagmoen was called to the majors. Players who had no No. 42 were allowed to continue to wear it. Mariano Rivera is the only active player still wearing 42.